Meerut British General Hospital
25/10/15
My dear Mother
I got your letter some days ago, with the copy of George’s which was very interesting. I hope he’ll have luck soon and get leave, he ought to be high up on the list of people for leave by now.
I was very glad to hear from you of your impressions of Baby: you must be feeling quite happy to have a baby in the house again except when she cries. But from all accounts she isn’t so wicked as her Father was in that respect. I can imagine Father recalling the sayings of John Byrd!
I think with Mary, that there being no special object in their going to London just now, in all the circumstances a good many people will be happier if they stay further west. Plans for after Xmas are not yet arranged, but there is time enough for that.
I hope you will find your new maid a help. With winter weather and fires about it would be difficult for you to get on without one. The days rapidly get colder, and I expect we’ll begin to feel some of the discomforts of tent life soon. However we’re very well off here compared with most people. I keep very busy in the laboratory. It is a comfortable place to work in, which is a great advantage.
You don’t find any remarkable likeness in Baby, which is surprising. I daresay she will grow more like her Mother, I hope so.
I heard from Mela a few days back giving me latest news of Cyril. I shouldn’t be surprised if he is in the more hopeful country of the Balkans. At least there is room to move and manouevre there. But I suppose we shall all be kept in the dark about events down there for a while.
Have you any news lately about Aunt Fanny and her sons abroad?
I hope you are quite rid of your cold, this foggy weather is rather trying for you.
My present mode of life is very quiet and uneventful, and is likely to continue so. I have the advantage of undisturbed nights, a great one for me! - and only exceptionally have I to work after dinner. In addition I find my work interesting, and feel this is eminently useful, for if one thing has really been a success in this campaign it is the controlling of typhoid in our Army. I wish the French had had equal success.
I wish I could see you with my little daughter. That is my only hardship just now, being separated from my wife and child, but it is a big only.
With much love Mother dear.
From your son
Arthur
